This gets his attention, and he stops screaming, blinking at me.
I unbuckle the gag and pull it off his head. “Thanks. I’ll help you with those cuffs in a minute.”
I lean over behind Shades, easily dodging the spurting blood. He’s too busy screaming to notice as I swiftly drop the gag over his face, shove it into his mouth, and yank the straps tight.
“Shut up, you little bitch,” I hiss in his ear, then show him my dagger and its evil nine-inch blade. “You’re gonna take every inch of this however I feel like serving it up.”
Shades struggles weakly against my hold, but he’s no match for my strength. He can’t hold his arm up, and his face is getting whiter and whiter.
“Rot for an eternity,” I coo, then with a vicious yank, I open his throat and shove him away from me. He falls halfway over the bed, choking, then goes still.
The young man starts to scream again.
I whirl toward him and clap a hand to his mouth. “I really need you to be quiet. Please?”
He nods rapidly.
Cautiously, I remove my hand, and he presses his lips together. I search the nightstand for the key to his cuffs, find it, then motion him to turn around so I can unlock them.
“Th-thank you,” he whispers, trembling as he rotates his wrists.
“Don’t mention it,” I reply. “You good? You want to go to the hospital?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “He’s rough and likes to hurt me—liked to hurt me—but I don’t think anything’s injured too bad.” He ventures a glance over his shoulder at Shades’s body then quickly faces forward.
I wipe my daggers on the comforter to clean them. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I’m just…gonna get dressed.” Moving slowly like I’m a wild animal, the young man reaches for a pile of clothing on the floor and gets dressed quickly. “He, um, killed your friend?”
“He did. And his brother out there? He killed my other friend. So I’m going to kill him next.”
The young man gulps. “And…the guy you said…shot you?”
“That’s right.”
“You survived that,” the young man says. “You must be a badass.”
“No, I died, actually,” I tell him. “But I had a badass looking out for me.”
A little snort comes from the other side of the door that only I can hear.
“Is…is that why your eyes…”
“Just contacts,” I say smoothly. “I’m a bit theatrical.”
He shakes his head slowly, taking a small but brave step toward me. “No. No way those are contacts. Those are your real eyes.”
I don’t admit to it, but I don’t dispute him either. I just give him a steady look.
“You should go,” I say. “Before things get…dicey.”
The young man nods quickly, and we both step toward the door. Then he pauses, turns. “But what about…him?”
I glance over my shoulder at Shades’s naked body. His legs and ass are sprawled across the bloody bed. His top half is draped over the side, head mercilessly out of the way, but I spot a spreading lake of red creeping across the hardwood floor from under the bed.
I turn back to the young man. “Fuck him.”
* * *